New CSAC Leader Focusing on Officials Training, Staffing Shortages

After more than a year without a permanent full-time leader, last
week the California State Athletic Commission welcomed its newly
appointed executive officer, George Dodd. Ninety-six hours into his
tenure, CSAC’s new leader sat down with Sherdog.com to discuss his
initial thoughts regarding mixed martial arts in California.

Dodd, a 40-year-old native from Washington state, arrived on scene
at CSAC headquarters last Monday in the state’s capital to oversee
the operation of the California agency charged with regulating and
licensing professional mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing and
muay Thai. Dodd takes over as CSAC’s first permanent executive
officer since Armando Garcia’s abrupt resignation from the post 14
months ago. For the past nine months, the CSAC has been under the
interim leadership of Dave Thornton, a former state regulator who
was coaxed out of retirement to temporarily fill the important, yet
vacant post.

Dodd brings to the job two years of regulatory experience in mixed
martial arts and boxing, which he acquired while serving as program
manager for Washington State Department of Licensing’s Professional
Athletics Division. Before making the career move into the
regulation of combat sports, Dodd served as a computer tech in the
Navy and retired as a Senior Chief Petty Officer.

The new CSAC chief also lays claim to some 31 years devoted to the
sport of wrestling as a competitor, official (17 years) and
coach.

While Dodd has only been on the job a matter of days, he was
resolute regarding his top priority under his administration.

“Safety of fighters is the number one priority,” he said.

When asked about his agenda for mixed martial arts, Dodd said that
he is not necessarily looking to make changes to the 10-point-must
scoring system, but that he would like to take an objective look at
it to evaluate whether there are better alternatives. He envisions
that process would be facilitated in large part through roundtable
discussions including fighters, promoters, referees and judges.

Another item on the agenda for Dodd is training of officials.
According to him, ensuring referees and judges are familiar with
the myriad different techniques utilized by today’s well-rounded
fighters will promote both safety and fair results. Dodd would also
like to streamline the regulatory process in a way that helps
smaller promoters navigate through the steps necessary to put on
MMA events.

Dodd says all of these objectives require a full and open dialogue
between CSAC, fighters, promoters, referees and judges, and said he
has wasted no time reaching out to these constituents.

While optimistic, CSAC’s new chief already finds himself in the
middle of a challenge to ensure all the agency’s administrative
functions are performed. According to Dodd, the State of California
has authorized a staff of 10 full-time employees, but as of today
only five of those positions are filled. Being new to the job, Dodd
did not appear to be in a position to fully evaluate how the
staffing issues were affecting the administrative functions of
CSAC. He was, however, quick to praise his staff for taking on the
added workload attributable to the staff shortages. Dodd was also
swift to point out that fighter safety and event oversight have not
been impacted by the staffing shortages at CSAC’s Sacramento
headquarters.

According to his predecessor Thornton, last year the state oversaw
210 professional combat events, approximately 91 of which were MMA.
Last years’ events, says Thornton, were overseen by approximately
55 permanent and intermittent inspectors stationed throughout the
state. Recognizing the burden on his staff, Dodd is anxious to fill
the vacant positions.

“J.R.” Riddell is an attorney and practicing member of the
California State Bar. This article does not provide legal advice,
and any opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the
author and do not reflect the views of his law firm, Orrick,
Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. Riddell can be reached at
jriddell@sherdog.com